


Hole in the Wall

by braingenius



Category: Fraggle Rock, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 09:45:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15905802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braingenius/pseuds/braingenius
Summary: A tinkering psychedelic musician communicates with a friend from a separate world. Takes place prior to the events of Fraggle Rock and prior to the real-life release of The Electric Lucifer.





	Hole in the Wall

Bruce Haack's studio was something to behold. The Manhattan apartment in which he lived had only a few square feet of space, and its occupant was intent on utilizing every inch of it. Shelves upon shelves of tape recorders, rhythm machines, hi-fi speakers and other inscrutable gizmos were stacked against the wall so densely, one barely realized that there was a wall at all behind it. Cables and wires snaked among the contraptions in a pattern that made sense only to the resident scientist of this sonic laboratory. Only a few items within could be recognized as "musical", including the centerpiece of it all, an old upright piano in a state of partial disassembly.

With so much to take in, one could be forgiven for not immediately noticing the gaping hole in the wall.

The apartment building was certainly not one of the most posh in Manhattan, but for someone whose salary mostly included playing piano for a children's dance class, it served its purpose. The hole had been there since Bruce had moved in, and every time someone would come by to visit he'd mention that he was "planning on doing something about it". No one really thought much of it, that's just how Bruce was. He could build a self-playing synthesizer out of $1.98 of electronic parts and a silverware tray, but he could never remember to pay his rent on time.

Bruce had built around the hole. It was the only part of the wall that was not obfuscated by some electric noisemaker or another. When Bruce would play his music, its unearthly tones would echo down the hole, reverberating through branching, snaking tunnels.

Sometimes, the faraway sound of a reed pipe could be heard, its melody entwining between the similar electric tone of the pulse waves.

Bruce had built around this hole for a reason.

* * *

 

"How was your trip to the sea?"

Bruce opened his eyes at the interruption to his meditation. Ordinarily he would have been irked at his connection to the universe being broken, but...Cantus was different. To say the least.

The creature only stood knee-high to Bruce, but then, so did a lot of the creatures he worked with. But Cantus was certainly no child. In fact, he conducted himself with the quiet spiritual confidence of a guru, and for all Bruce knew, that's exactly what he was where he came from. Yet there too was a playfulness about him, which seemed to be not at all contradictory with his sagacity—rather, it seemed to be the aim of it. The meaning of life, as it existed to him, was to live in harmony and kindness with the rest of the universe. Bruce considered him to be a kindred spirit.

Cantus' appearance seemed to perfectly reflect his personality. The creature's scarlet whiskers and kind, sleepy eyes projected an air of wisdom...but beyond that, he did look silly. The most striking thing about him was how absolutely colorful he was, almost radiating shades of fiery red and sunny yellow. Indeed, with his birdlike snout, one might at a distance wonder if he was some sort of tropical avian, but he had no wings of any sort, rather arms and legs and a long, tufted tail. The overall impression of him was something akin to a Dr. Seuss illustration come to life.

Bruce grinned. "Oh, the muse definitely sang in me. Somehow it's easier there than most other places..."

"Is it?" The creature took a seat next to Bruce, crossing his legs in a similar fashion.

"Well, the sounds of the ocean are so much more...inviting as inspiration than the sounds of..." Bruce motioned to the window and remained silent for a moment, allowing the sounds of cars and construction to fill the silence.

"Like so many Doozers..." Cantus remarked. "I'm amazed at how you can stand it."

Bruce laughed. Cantus had told him about the Doozers before. Tiny construction workers who never seemed to be "off-duty"...it sounded so whimsical, but that's precisely why Bruce loved listening to Cantus. The stories of his world reminded Bruce a lot of his own, viewed through a lens that most other people didn't bother to look through. "You sort of have to be a Doozer to get by in this world. It's nice to have some time away to be a Fraggle."

Bruce truly envied Cantus' species. They put enjoying their lives seemingly above all other things. They laughed and played and sang together at the drop of a hat, living and loving each other, allowing themselves to be themselves...that made so much more sense to Bruce than the way his world worked. He hadn't even had much of a chance to do that in his childhood.

Cantus smiled. Bruce would make a good Fraggle, even if he was a bit...odd. Bruce was himself more Doozerish than he realized, cobbling together all these contraptions just to hear a new sound from them...but he did it all in the spirit of a Fraggle.

"So...let me hear your Song."

"Uh...which one?" Bruce stood up to look around for his notepad.

"Your Song." Cantus repeated.

"...I mean, there are a few I've been working on..." Bruce's notepad was, conveniently, on top of the piano he did most of his songwriting on, and so he sat down at the keyboard as he flipped through the pages.

Cantus stood up himself, his tail swaying back and forth. "All your songs are part of your Song."

Bruce smiled. Sometimes Cantus said strange things, but nothing he said didn't make sense. "Ah, here's one..." He placed the notepad back on top of the piano. He hadn't written notation, he never did, but he'd written down enough for him to remember the melodies that had gone through his head.

> "Time told of Mary  
>  Giving birth  
>  Necessary  
>  Planet Earth..."

The sway of Cantus' tail began to match the groove that Bruce was laying down. It was a song about one of the legends of Bruce's world. He always liked to listen to those. Everywhere in the Rock, Fraggles had their own tales of history and mythology, and apparently Bruce's world was no different. In his mythos, there was a God, who had given a child to one of Bruce's kind named Mary, and the child was named Jesus, and he was destined to save Bruce's world, but he hadn't shown up for thousands of years. Cantus had only ever measured time in days, as there were really no other ways to measure time in the Rock, so he could not possibly imagine how long thousands of years must be.

There was another mythical figure Bruce was fascinated by. Someone named "Lucifer", the light-bringer, who had turned against the God and was thus banished to Bruce's world. As such, Lucifer was blamed for all the ills of Bruce's world—of which there seemed to be many—but Bruce told Cantus that if all the world began to love one another and live as one, then even Lucifer himself would be forgiven.

Cantus was wistful the first time Bruce had told him this legend. Fraggles had abolished hierarchical government ages ago, after realizing how damaging it was to every Fraggle involved. Hearing the tales of Bruce's world was like meeting a Fraggle from the Time of Ruling...except the technology of Bruce's kind was far more complex than even the most magnificent feats of Doozer engineering. Bruce used his knowledge of this technology to make music. There were some of his kind who weren't using it to such admirable ends.

Cantus took out his pipe and played a cascading arpeggio along with Bruce's B-section. Bruce beamed at how well it fit with the piece—but then, Cantus seemed to know exactly the right thing to do in every musical situation. Bruce imitated the arpeggio with his right hand on the piano, adding some of his own embellishments in. Cantus replied, syncopating his first arpeggio, to which Bruce replied by playing it with an "echo" added in. The two musicians played this little call-and-response game for as long as the spirit continued to move them. Bruce called it a "jam session". Cantus called it "keeping the music alive".

**Author's Note:**

> Song used is "Incantation" from 1970's The Electric Lucifer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGRkJsEJFOk


End file.
